Gyöngyössy Márton (szerk.): Perspectives on the Past. Major Excavations in County Pest (Szentendre, 2008)

(2700/2500-800 ВС)

Only the lowermost level of the town wall survived in the eastern part of the onetime German quarter on the plot at 20 Zichy Hippolit Road, investigated in 2005. The greater part of the wall had been demolished by former generations. Two ditches were dug in front of the walls as additional protection against possible assaults. This defence system was apparently still used at the close of the Ottoman period since the ditch was meticulously cleaned at this time. The burials found along the outer ditch date from this period. Four grave pits contained a single burial each, while the fifth one contained two burials. The deceased had not been placed in a coffin, but were simply thrown carelessly into the pits judging from their position. Knowing that the Christian population always buried its dead in the hallowed ground of the graveyard around the church, it seems likely that these burials contained the remains of people who had been denied burial in the church graveyard because of their deeds.

The remains of medieval houses came to light at 23 Köztársaság Road in 2006. The most interesting among them was built by a German family arriving in the 13th century after

the devastations of the Mongolian invasion of 1241, which remained in their ownership for several generations. The house’s framework was constructed from long posts dug into the ground, which were then connected with wattling and daubed with clay on both sides. The floor of the three rooms and the small anteroom was plastered with clay. The stone foundations of another house lay beside this house, which had repeatedly burnt down and been rebuilt again. Lying under the foundation, in the earliest occupation levels, were the remains of sunken huts and ovens from the 10th—11 th centuries, providing evidence for the first time that the area had been occupied from an early date.